“So, is everything in order,” you ask, heart pounding in your chest?  “Yep, we are good to go,” you hear like musical echos in your ears.  “Okay, just shoot us the PO and we’ll be rocking and rolling,” you reply almost out of breath.  “On its way,” you hear.

The PO is on it’s way.  Music to the sales-man ears.  So, how did you get here?  What did it take to ‘slay’ this close?  Why all the excitement?  The reason is simple: it is hard to sell somebody something.  It takes time, patience, confidence, and most importantly persistence.  In many cases, the transaction is directly tied to your compensation.  I argue, its not the paycheck that has your heart-rate up… it’s the possibility of failure and the relief of success.

Here are some tips from my recent professional career (VP Sales & Business Development for a very cool Headphone Company):
1. Don’t push, make sure everything is in order instead.
2. Be sure everyone involved is “sold” on the need for your product/service…  Hint: it should start with: You need us because we are X which is different than Y, and we both agreed will help you to do Z.
3. Begin with understanding.  Start by learning your customers needs, wants, and desires… if this is a reseller, put yourself in the resellers shoes… they want to look good right?  help them.
4. Don’t compromise for the sale.  Even if you have carte-blanch to do what is best… set some parameters for  what is fair and stick to it!
5. Be open about the margins.  Anyone can figure out how much it costs to make something… be open about the margins you need and the margins you are willing to share/extend… a little research helps a lot here.
6. During the close.. remember to breathe!
7. Don’t announce the close till you get the PO!  (SOOOOO tempting)
8. Your fear of failure is real.  Acknowledge it and focus on the consequences of a lost account today… it’s probably NOT the end of the world like your heart is telling you.

Now, go out there and close!
Make no compromise.
Get it done!

The contractors have finally dialed in, 15-minutes late, for the status meeting.  They act as if nothing is wrong, “Hello everyone, how is it going?”  Your team looks frustrated, back in college they only waited 10-min for full PhD’s!  “Fine, fine,” you say calmly, “how are things there?”  “Fine, going good,” they reply.  “Uhh, can you be more specific, this is the update meeting after all…”.  Twenty minutes later they hang up, and you have NO IDEA the status, quality, or needs of the contractor.  What went wrong?  This is not going well!

As CEO, I spend a lot of my energy making sure that my management team is WELL ARMED to manage effectively.  By manage, I mean: ensure that tasks and objectives are met on schedule and that all tools and materials are available when needed.  

The problem is, when a contractor is NOT in the same office, you rarely know when they are lacking tools or needed materials.  It is equally difficult to get exposure to the progress vs. schedule, and damn near impossible to make sure the objectives are met.  MANY MANAGERS struggle with this with employees, let alone offiste contractors.

Here are some of the tips I train my managers (and employees who often do manager jobs) in dealing with contractors:
1. MOST IMPORTANTLY: don’t pay hourly.
* Hourly is the wrong incentive for your contractors!  Pay based on objectives and milestones.
* If you must pay hourly, be sure to specify how many hours per week/etc. that the contractor may work on the project.
* If you must pay hourly, be sure to get an estimate first.. and provide a penalty if they go over the estimate (makes it almost not hourly).

2. Have a GOOD CONTRACT that includes both a carrot and a stick.  
*  Include in the contract a “Bonus” for early delivery, but also include a “Penalty” if quality problems exist post-delivery.
*  My penalty is usually they have to fix the problem in 2 days or we will deduct 5% from the total.
*  A good bonus would be 10%.  (contractors aren’t use to this, so it can be quite motivating!)

3. Whenever possible only contract out something that is a “complete job”.
* The Job MUST have a finite end-point and delivery metric.
* It must be FULLY specified IN THE CONTRACT.
* It cannot rely on multiple inputs or outside team members.

4. Build in “DELIVERED” milestones to the Contract.
* At least 1 per month or so… a nice stopping point with delivery of the ‘unfinished’ product. (ideally in a testable state).
* Along the way, you will see progress when a delivered milestone is given to you.

5. Make certain all tools and needed materials are given at the start.

6. DON’T MAKE CHANGES!
* If there is a change you HAVE to make… don’t.  Just let the contractor finish, then do a change as a separate contract.

If you can follow the above, you don’t need the weekly meeting, just a quick call or email if they miss a milestone!
Best of all, they are MOTIVATED to do it on-time and high quality.
AND you can track their progress via the milestones.

Got your attention didn’t I?  Why?  Because sex sells.  Pornography once pushed the envelopes of internet technology, leading to the creation of streaming video, live streaming video, CDN, and other internet technologies.  Pornography once dominated the bandwidth of the internet.  Here is your wake-up call… TIMES HAVE CHANGED!  The internet is now dominated by “user generated content”.  Facebook, myspace, and the like now dominates web traffic.  What does this mean for the business of sex?  It has peaked (no pun intended).

Photo courtesy of this interesting study that Online Sex makes you depressed.  I would argue this is especially true if your business depends on this declining trend.